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Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld
From his Appalachian Spring ballet score for thirteen instruments (1944), Aaron Copland extracted an orchestral suite in 1945. A third configuration, requested by Eugene Ormandy in 1954, combines elements of both suite and ballet.
Posted in: Commissions, Composers, Dance, Guest bloggers, Special Collections
Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld
Discusses the story behind two copyright deposit versions of the theme for Star Trek: The Original Series.
Posted in: Composers, Copyright Deposits, Film Music, Guest bloggers
Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld
Taylor McClaskie is one of the Music Division’s summer 2019 interns. She is a Ph.D. candidate in musicology at Case Western Reserve University and is currently writing a dissertation on music and environmental activism in 1980s America. During my time in the Music Division I have been helping to process and catalogue unpublished popular music …
Posted in: Composers, Copyright Deposits, Guest bloggers, Newly Cataloged, Women in Music, Women in Theater
Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld
Details the story behind how baseball's most well-known song, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," came to be.
Posted in: Baseball, Composers, Curators, Exhibitions, Guest bloggers
Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld
The mention of late-eighteenth century Vienna frequently conjures thoughts of well-known composers like Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven. But since I joined a project reporting pre-1800 imprints and manuscripts to RISM (Répertoire International des Sources Musicales, an open-access database that lets you see which libraries have a certain published score or unique manuscript), I would like …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Newly Cataloged
Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld
Since publishing Leaves of Grass in June 1855, Walt Whitman and his poetry have captured the American imagination. Not until the early twentieth century, however, did composers begin to draw from and set to music Whitman’s work in earnest. Today, 200 years after Whitman’s birth, his settings have inspired over 500 composers to write over …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Exhibitions
Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld
On this Saturday, February 23rd at 11am, yours truly, Paul Sommerfeld, will offer a #Declassified talk in the Mary Pickford Theater focused on the film music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold. A screening of Captain Blood (1935), one of Korngold’s earliest film scores, will follow at 12pm. In this interactive #Declassified event, I’ll be focusing on how Korngold’s …
Posted in: Composers, Exhibitions, Film Music, Special Collections
Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld
Multiple news articles have heralded the many works and publications that entered the public domain on January 1st of 2019. Pieces of music, novels, and films alike have become available within the United States without copyright permissions. With the changes in copyright status, I wondered exactly how much of the Music Division’s substantial collection of …
Posted in: Composers, Copyright Deposits, Film Music
Posted by: Paul Sommerfeld
Every year when December arrives, I find the urge to re-watch the classic animated film, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Its themes centered in kindness and giving have always resonated with me most each holiday season. Originally written by Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel and published in 1957, the 1966 special features a narration by Boris …
Posted in: Composers, Film Music, Holidays